New Frontiers in History

A special issue of Histories (ISSN 2409-9252).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 11596

Special Issue Editor

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2500, Australia
Interests: Australian history and politics; history of political ideas; philosophy of history; intellectual history

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is designed to celebrate the founding of the open access journal Histories and is focused on presenting new ideas and advances at the cutting edge of historical scholarship. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to: micro and global history, historical methods, cultural history, social history, environmental history, intellectual history, public history, and the philosophy of history. The aim is to build a community of authors to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions relating it to their personal areas of interest and expertise. We hope you see a possibility to go further in this direction and use the solid infrastructure of "Histories".

Reviews, regular research papers, and communications are welcomed, and there is no restriction on the length of the papers.

Histories is an open-access journal and MDPI have agreed to publish papers that have been prepared for this important issue free of any charge.

This will be a dynamic Special Issue, and articles will be published as soon as the reviewers and editors are ready to accept them, without waiting for the deadline for the entire Special Issue to arrive.

Prof. Dr. Greg Melleuish
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Histories is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • History
  • historiography
  • cultural history
  • social history
  • environmental history
  • intellectual history
  • public history
  • philosophy of history

Published Papers (5 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Other

20 pages, 332 KiB  
Article
A Theological Age: A New Way of Looking at the History of the West
by Greg Melleuish and Susanna Rizzo
Histories 2023, 3(2), 156-175; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020011 - 29 May 2023
Viewed by 1443
Abstract
This paper argues that the current age is best understood as a theological age in that its normal approach to the world is one based on a high level of abstraction. Theology stands in contrast with piety, which derives much more from immediate [...] Read more.
This paper argues that the current age is best understood as a theological age in that its normal approach to the world is one based on a high level of abstraction. Theology stands in contrast with piety, which derives much more from immediate experience and embodies common sense. The cultural and intellectual development of Europe and the West can be understood in terms of the interaction of two distinct modes of thinking and viewing the world, namely theology and piety, and the way in which theology has come to dominate Western culture to the detriment of piety. Hence, the dominance of Greek rationalism within the West has led to a one-sided culture that gives priority to rationalist modes of thought. There has been a continuing tradition of piety in the West, but its existence has tended to be somewhat fugitive as can be seen, for example, in Musil’s depiction of the ‘other condition’ and in J S Mill’s personal breakdown caused by an excess of theology. The implications of a theological approach for history are evident as historical developments are viewed through the rigid prisms of perspectives that either fragment the study of history into a series of disconnected narratives endowed with their unique telos or impose an all-encompassing narrative that erases differences as well as potentialities. In both cases, it is the theological mode of thought—which has dominated the West since the so-called birth of rationalism—that turns history into ideology. This paper contends that the current condition calls for a new history of philosophy that captures and responds to the crisis affecting the West’s self-understanding and sense of purpose. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers in History)
14 pages, 317 KiB  
Article
Prehistory and Ideology in Cold War Southeast Asia: The Politics of Wartime Archaeology in Thailand and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1954–1975
by Maurizio Peleggi
Histories 2023, 3(2), 98-111; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories3020008 - 21 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1485
Abstract
The two decades comprised within the partition of Vietnam and the end of the Indochina Wars surprisingly saw major advances in prehistoric archaeology in the region. This article examines the political context and implications of archaeological investigations conducted in Thailand and the Democratic [...] Read more.
The two decades comprised within the partition of Vietnam and the end of the Indochina Wars surprisingly saw major advances in prehistoric archaeology in the region. This article examines the political context and implications of archaeological investigations conducted in Thailand and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under the guidance of, respectively, American and Soviet specialists, as an aspect of the cultural Cold War. Archaeological discoveries in both countries debunked colonial archaeology’s account of prehistoric Southeast Asia as a passive recipient of Chinese cultural influence by documenting autonomous technological development. The article argues that the new image of mainland Southeast Asia’ prehistory that formed by the early 1970s reflected the superpowers’ objective of empowering the region’s postcolonial nation-states notwithstanding their political contrasts, yet it was not equally congruent with the nationalist narratives of Thailand and North Vietnam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers in History)
38 pages, 25714 KiB  
Article
The Network of Early Modern Printers and Its Impact on the Evolution of Scientific Knowledge: Automatic Detection of Awareness Relationships
by Matteo Valleriani, Malte Vogl, Hassan el-Hajj and Kim Pham
Histories 2022, 2(4), 466-503; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2040033 - 09 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2901
Abstract
This work describes a computational method for reconstructing clusters of social relationships among early modern printers and publishers, the most determinant agents for the process of transformation of scientific knowledge. The method is applied to a dataset retrieved from the Sphaera corpus, a [...] Read more.
This work describes a computational method for reconstructing clusters of social relationships among early modern printers and publishers, the most determinant agents for the process of transformation of scientific knowledge. The method is applied to a dataset retrieved from the Sphaera corpus, a collection of 359 editions of textbooks used at European universities and produced between the years 1472 and 1650. The method makes use of standard bibliographic data and fingerprints; social relationships are defined as “awareness relationships”. The historical background is constituted of the production and economic practices of early modern printers and publishers in the academic book market. The work concludes with empirically validating historical case studies, their historical interpretation, and suggestions for further improvements by utilizing machine learning technologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers in History)
Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 268 KiB  
Article
History as Philosophy: The Search for Meaning
by Brett Bowden
Histories 2022, 2(2), 80-90; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2020008 - 08 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2765
Abstract
One of the reasons for our interest in the past, or history, is our concern for the future, including the future of our planet and its many and varied inhabitants. It has been suggested that “historians are particularly suited” to exploring and teaching [...] Read more.
One of the reasons for our interest in the past, or history, is our concern for the future, including the future of our planet and its many and varied inhabitants. It has been suggested that “historians are particularly suited” to exploring and teaching about the future. This suggestion recalls earlier ideas of philosophical approaches to the study of history that sought to find patterns or purpose in history. These approaches are associated with ideas of progress and teleological accounts of history more generally. The underlying philosophical approach to history is a broader search for meaning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers in History)

Other

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 391 KiB  
Essay
A Framework for European Thought on Psychology, Education, and Health Based on Foucault’s The Order of Things
by Carol Nash
Histories 2022, 2(3), 222-240; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030018 - 12 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1895
Abstract
In European thought, the relationship among the fields of psychology, education, and health is both complex and obscured. Foucault’s acclaimed work, The Order of Things, offers a framework to evaluate their interconnection by identifying three distinct periods of European thought since the [...] Read more.
In European thought, the relationship among the fields of psychology, education, and health is both complex and obscured. Foucault’s acclaimed work, The Order of Things, offers a framework to evaluate their interconnection by identifying three distinct periods of European thought since the 16th century, with respect to the ordering of phenomena—Renaissance, Classical, and Modern. Theoretically dense and often difficult to decipher, the book’s categorization of language, value, and being has been understandably underused, yet it provides deep insights into what have come to be known as psychology, education, and health, and remains invaluable in understanding the origin, limits, and consequences of these fields. Investigated is how Foucault’s analysis can be interpreted, concerning the development of these areas in each of the three periods of European thought. An approach based on narrative research appraises the analysis offered in the book. The results, presented for the first time in table form, compare these three periods, demonstrating a continuing practical value to Foucault’s insights. With the aid of the framework presented by these tables, the boundaries and relationship of psychology, education, and health become clear, and their limitations—plus potential solutions to them—can be identified to mitigate anticipated negative consequences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers in History)
Back to TopTop